Kingfisher slips to No. 5 in market share

New Delhi: Cash-strapped Kingfisher’s fight for survival by cutting flights – and hence costs – has severely dented its market position. According to latest government figures, the airline is now number five in terms of market share with low-cost carrier SpiceJet overtaking it in domestic passenger carriage during November. Now, Kingfisher with a 14% share is ahead only of GoAir’s 6.2%.
The leading players are now consolidating their position by gaining from Kingfisher’s loss. Naresh Goyal’s Jet group remains the biggest player in domestic market with Jet and JetLite together enjoying a 27.1% share in November . Rahul Bhatia’s Indi-Go is second with 19.8%, followed by Air India (domestic) at 17.4%.
IndiGo had in October overtaken Kingfisher and become the number two airline in terms of market share – a slot it had shared with Vijay Mallya’s beleaguered airline for some months before that. But now Mallya has been overtaken even by SpiceJet (15.5% share in November), which was some months back acquired by Sun Group’s K Maran.
22/12/11 Saurabh Sinha/Economic Times